Conservation 2011: Footprint

Smart ways to reduce bycatch

Entries for WWF’s Smart Gear competition
close 31 August 2011. The competition –
which awards prizes worth US$57,000 to
the inventors of fishing gear that reduces
the accidental capture of marine life – has
gained a number of successes with winning
entries being adopted in many fisheries
around the world. Flexi grids, which won in
2006, are now mandatory in blue whiting
fisheries in the Faroe Islands, and
are used in a growing number of
countries all over the world.
“The Eliminator” – a winning idea from
2007 – designed to reduce bycatch of cod, is
now being used by fishermen in the northeastern
U.S. haddock fisheries, as well as
being adopted by the EU as a mandatory
measure under certain conditions. Be sure to
checkout the website: www.smartgear.org

Boost for MSC-certification

Icelandic Group, one of the world’s ten
largest seafood companies, has submitted
its cod and haddock fisheries for Marine
Stewardship Council (MSC) certification
and if successful will extend sustainable fish
choices for consumers on a global scale.
Icelandic Group purchases and markets
35% of the total fish quota caught in the seas
of Iceland, in value terms the world’s 11th
largest exporter of seafood.
For the first time, consumers can buy
MSC-certified cod caught in the Baltic Sea.
From being close to collapse seven years ago,
through effective conservation work Baltic
cod are now healthy and abundant, and
consumers can eat this fish and support a
sustainable fisheries economy in the
Baltic region.

Discarding bad practise

For the first time, guidelines on reducing
discards – a practice that is damaging to the
marine environment, especially to recovering
fish populations – have been adopted by the
UN FAO’s Committee of Fisheries.
This decision will help solve a hugely wasteful
fishing practice and by emphasising overall
good fisheries management, sets an
important course for the future.
Discards in the North Sea are being tackled
through the EU-Norway fisheries agreement,
which allows EU countries to incentivise
their fleets to adopt modern technology of
onboard cameras to record all catches, making
fishermen accountable for their catches, not
their landings. WWF has pushed strongly for
this action as key to its efforts to reform the
EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Mekong merry-go-round

A final decision on construction of the
Xayaburi dam in Laos has been deferred by
the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to the
ministerial level, following concerns raised
by Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. This
follows mounting evidence highlighting risks
to biodiversity, fisheries and livelihoods
of millions of people in the Mekong River
Basin. A WWF-commissioned review found
the Environmental Impact Assessment
and Feasibility Study for the proposed
dam woefully inadequate and well below
international standards for such studies.
WWF supports a 10-year delay in the
approval of lower Mekong mainstream dams,
including the Xayaburi hydropower dam,
to ensure a comprehensive understanding
of all the impacts of their construction and
operation.

Global river partnership

WWF is developing a major freshwater
partnership initiative to improve water
governance in key rivers of the world to
achieve a balance between human needs for
agriculture, industry and urban areas, and
the needs of nature by maintaining natural
water flows. Both governments and the
private sector are abruptly realizing the risks
that mismanaged water resources pose to
their future – especially in the face of huge
anticipated impacts of climate change and
human population increase. WWF will work
in partnership with government and water
management authorities, the private sector,
and other stakeholders in key rivers such as
the Ganges and the Yangtze, and countries
ranging from India and China to South
Africa, Kenya and Pakistan.

Pangasius and tilapia head for certification

WWF has introduced a new category in
its seafood guides – “moving towards
certification” – to give consumers information
so they can support fisheries and fish farms
that have committed to achieve the highest
standards of sustainable production. This
category also recognises genuine effort
to reduce the environmental impacts of
aquaculture. Working with aquaculture
producers and fisheries authorities in
Vietnam – which produces almost the entire
world supply of pangasius (also known as
tra and basa catfish) – and Honduras and
Indonesia on production of tilapia, WWF is
confident they are on course to comply with
the standards to be used by the newly-formed
Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).
These products will be indicated as “moving
towards certification”.

Stopping climate emissions from forest los

Projects that reduce emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation
(REDD+), which also benefit local
communities and conservation are key to
WWF’s efforts to reduce the 15 per cent of
greenhouse gas emissions contributing to
climate change. WWF is helping pilot such
projects in key forest countries such as
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In March 2011, an event in Kinshasa with
participants from civil society, government
agencies and international organizations
launched the Moabi RDC – a platform
for civil society to participate in the
REDD+ process which supports the DRC
government’s REDD policy and helps
identify competing legal claims e.g. for
logging, mining, and agriculture to facilitate
forest management to REDD+ standards.

Korean pine logging ban to help tigers

The Russian government has taken a huge
step to save key Amur tiger habitats by
banning Korean Pine logging. “Korean
Pine has a crucial importance for tiger
conservation: its cones are fodder for wild
boars, and wild boars are tiger prey” says
Igor Chestin, CEO of WWF-Russia. This
ban was included by WWF-Russia in the list
of top eight measures that must be taken
in Russia for tiger conservation, which
were presented to the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment of Russia in
2010. Korean pine harvest is important
for at least 50 species, including the wild
boar, one of the main prey species of the
Amur tiger. The endangered Amur tiger,
numbering fewer than 500 in the wild, is
found primarily in southeastern Russia and
northern China.

Towards sustainability for biofuels

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels
(RSB) was launched in March as a multistakeholder
initiative that has developed
a global sustainability standard and
certification system for biofuel production.
Implementation of the RSB standard is
central to WWF’s Bioenergy Strategy, which
aims to achieve by 2015 15% global biofuels
production to be certified under RSB or other
WWF supported credible scheme.
Following years of cooperation, the Chinese
State Forest Administration (SFA) released
guidelines for sustainable bioenergy
plantations, including jatropha. China
has ambitious plans to expand bioenergy
plantations, and the guidelines incorporate
key concepts advocated by WWF and
certification schemes such as the RSB.

Forest solutions to climate change

At an event in January in Jakarta to celebrate
the UN Year of Forests, 600 government
and industry leaders joined former US Vice
President Al Gore and WWF Indonesia CEO
Dr Efransjah, to discuss the private sector’s
role in sustainability and addressing climate
change. WWF launched its Green Business
Network, a business-to-business platform
supporting transformational change in the
forestry, palm oil and mining sectors in the
22 million hectare Heart of Borneo (HOB).
WWF and its partner, The Borneo Initiative,
launched a third group of companies with
forests totalling 900,000 hectares committed
to pursuing Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) certification. This innovative approach
has now secured FSC commitments totalling
2.3 million – 10 percent of the HOB.

Check Your Paper

WWF’s Check Your Paper tool for rating the
sustainability of paper products now has
more than 100 paper products ranked ‘good’
or ‘excellent’ in the coated and uncoated
categories, such as copy paper, and printing
and writing paper. The tool is designed to
help buyers find products with the lowest
environmental impact. It assesses forest
management, CO2 emissions, water and
energy use and legality of source. Go to
http://checkyourpaper.panda.org. “WWF
urges all paper buyers to check the tool
before purchasing and encourages other
paper makers to join Check Your Paper,”
says Rodney Taylor, Forest Director, WWF
International.

WWF’s Energy Report – a call to action

The world’s energy needs could be provided
cleanly, renewably and economically by 2050,
according to WWF’s Energy Report, which
breaks new ground with its consideration of
total energy needs including transport, and
making adequate and safe energy available
to all. The report shows that in four decades
we can have a world of vibrant economies
and societies powered entirely by clean,
cheap and renewable energy and with a
vastly improved quality of life. Prepared with
energy consultancy Ecofys, the report shows
that by 2050 all major energy needs could be
met with only isolated residual uses of fossil
fuels – vastly reducing anxieties over energy
security, pollution and not least, catastrophic
climate change.

Clean Energy Ambassadors

Leaders of several major companies, along
with key policymakers and thought leaders
have demonstrated their support for WWF’s
100 per cent renewable energy vision by
signing-up as “Clean Energy Ambassadors”.
This initiative, launched in conjunction
with The Energy Report brings together a
group of influential industry leaders and
visionaries to provide an authoritative and
knowledgeable voice in the push for a global
transition to renewable energy sources. The
Energy Report articulates an ambitious
but achievable vision that outlines the key
changes required to achieve a fully clean
energy future and avoid catastrophic climate
change. WWF’s Clean Energy Ambassadors
will be real allies in helping bring to the table
the key questions to be addressed and the
key decisions that will need to be taken.

Beyond the Hour

On 26 March, Earth Hour went beyond the
hour, sparking environmental commitments
from heads of state, companies, cities
and individuals in 135 countries. Nepal
committed to stopping logging in the
2.3 million ha Chiruya forest. In China,
each of the 84 cities participating made
commitments – Chengdu will put 80,000
bikes on the streets and Shenyang will
reforest 40,000 ha. Earth Hour was hugely
popular on social media – videos on YouTube
were viewed 2.8 million times, there were
68 million interactions through Earth Hour
apps and Facebook, MySpace and other sites,
and supermodel Miranda Kerr drove tens
of millions to the earthhour.org website.
An estimated 2 billion people were reached
by Earth Hour. Beyond the hour is helping
achieve broader and deeper engagement.